Super Budget Friendly Wheels

Okay everyone!

Finally have the wheels finished, painted, tires mounted, and put onto the car.

I am overall pretty happy with them. They are certainly not stanced, flashy, head turning, or by any means have any "class" but the entire point of doing these wheels was BUDGET. Very very budget friendly. I particularly wanted 16" rims. It is what my personal opinion thinks is the best size rim for this car. That being said, 16" rims in our bolt pattern and to have a PROPER offset (et 30, 35, 38, 40) for a daily driver was a must. And that left very few options out there without shelling out huge sums of dough. I got these rims with winter tires on them (still had a little life left) for $60 Canadian.

Until I came across these. Mini cooper 16" steelies. There are 2 types out there, a regular steelie that is 16" and then this mini cooper special style, it has more of a "face" on them before rounding out to where the holes are. Notice they are much nearer to the dish? These have been somewhat common for people who want to build a custom wheel and have them widened or "banded" aka turned into deep dish rims. I had the idea that I could change the look of a traditional steelie with the right shoes.

Now bear with me. This certainly is not for everyone. But I'm sure some people may enjoy this themselves and want to go after it as well. Stretched tire, small sidewalls.. Really does change the look of a wheel. I didn't want or even need a stretched tire at all. But I was skeptical about having a larger sidewall because of the larger rim diameter. The rim clears everything really well, full lock and all. But put it in a corner with braking and that can cause rubbing, so I played it a little safe and got tires thinner than I probably could have gotten away with. I ordered a set of 4 Achilles ATR-K Economy 165/40r16 tires. These are supposed to give good economy with low rolling resistance.. But most importantly these were the cheapest! Safety is always a factor but for my regular commuting and for my climate these will be fine. I paid $210 USD shipped for these tires.

So I had a couple ideas of what to do with the rims, but long story short I decided to go for white, because I wanted to have custom lug nuts as the color accent. I painted the rims with the old tires on them before having the new ones mounted. So here they are all mounted and everything Don't they already look so different than before!!? I think the low profile tires make the dish look deeper. Brings it out more. I used 2 cans of high gloss white enamel, with a can of finishing clearcoat afterwards.

Now is when I decided to install the rear lowering springs (auto dynasty amazon ones) because these low profile tires left a lot of fender gap. Looked stupid!! So now these are fresh installed, they may settle a little more over the next week or so. But here is the finished product! I decided to get red lug nuts, and there was a really good deal on these open end extended nuts so I went for them. I'm not obsessed with them, but I don't mind them either. They are different. Until a better deal comes along I'll keep them though. I went for red to match the Mitsubishi logo's that I red vinyl'd front, rear and steering wheel. And if this tow hook I bought 3 months ago ever decides to arrive, that is red too.. I paid $20 Canadian for the lug nuts. And the lowering springs were less than $80 Canadian for the whole set, I installed them myself. Fronts took me an hour, the rears took me 10 minutes.

Overall, for a grand total of under $300 for brand new economical rubber and fresh wheels with new lugnuts, not to mention that these rims have ZERO RUB with as many people as I want in the car... I also get to keep the wicked turning radius and not worrying about corners while braking. No fender rolling. Very happy. The point was to be very budget friendly, but also DAILY DRIVER FRIENDLY. I hate problems. I am not 16 years old anymore, I want something to be as functional as it is aesthetic. I think these are great for what they are and I will be happy to use these for a long time. I will eventually re-spray the rims, the paint is somewhat soft from my very basic spray job. May end up trying different colors, not stressed. The tire mounting did scratch them a little but who cares.

It looks like the overall diameter of your new tires is substantially smaller than stock. Are you worried about how it will affect odometer readings or fuel economy? Also, how do you like the new ride and handling?

I'm interested in seeing how this setup does for you. Thanks for posting.

It looks like the overall diameter of your new tires is substantially smaller than stock. Are you worried about how it will affect odometer readings or fuel economy? Also, how do you like the new ride and handling?

I'm interested in seeing how this setup does for you. Thanks for posting.

The diameter is one inch less than the stock enasaves. If I end up needing new tires I would get the same width but go for either a 45 or maybe even 50 series tires to combat that. I can hardly tell the difference in my tach and speedo readings. The ride quality is more firm but partially because I ride with the max allowable and safe PSI in my tires for best fuel economy.